Diagnosis for disaster: Obamanesia and a fuhgeddaboudit President

President Barack Obama, right, stands with World Bank President Jim Kim, left, while golfing at Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown, Mass., on the island of Martha's Vineyard Sunday, Aug. 18, 2013. Obama returned to the golf course Sunday to play his sixth and final round of a weeklong vacation on Martha's Vineyard. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
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Near the end of the 2012 election campaign, President Obama accused Mitt Romney of “at least Stage 3 Romnesia”-- which the President described as, “If you can't seem to remember the policies on your website or the promises you've been making over the six years you've been running for president, if you can't even remember what you said last week, don't worry.”

Well, Mr. President, look in the mirror for the faults in yourself that you attributed to Mr. Romney. According to the online Urban Dictionary, “Obamanesia” is, “A questionable commander in chief's partial or total loss of memory regarding the actual sequences of events in an attempt to not take responsibility for them. It is the opposite of Truman's famous phrase: ‘The Buck Stops Here!’ It is a strategy in politics where the one in power attempts to attribute to another person or group the responsibility for one's own lack of leadership or mistakes. Made famous by Barack Hussein Obama's denial of certain emails regarding the Libya incident 2012; after being caught with his pants down, he later tried to pin it on Hillary Clinton.”

A partial list of the president’s acts of “Obamanesia” include:

ObamaCare. The President’s mother of all health care reforms has turned into the mulligan of all health care reforms. Worrying that ObamaCare will hurt Democrats in the 2014 elections, the President keeps amending and delaying it, ignoring his constitutional obligation to fully implement and enforce a law he already signed.

The more we learn about ObamaCare from sources, including the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the more we learn how it will damage job creation (especially full-time jobs) and business growth, cost way more than advertised, grant special exemptions (e.g. to Congress), deny us the choices we were promised to keep our health care plans and doctors, raise taxes, increase our wait time for medical treatments while eroding the quality of care, and cause doctors and hospitals to cut back, or eliminate, services.

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In a recent Fox News poll of American voters, 57 percent said the way ObamaCare is being rolled out is “a joke,” 63 percent said the law needs to be changed, 71 percent believed ObamaCare will increase their taxes, 62 percent believe it will increase the cost of their premiums and 65 percent believe implementing the law will add to the federal deficit. Gallup and Rasmussen Reports polls show similar negativity by American voters concerning ObamaCare’s future impact on their families and the country.

But in his August 17 radio address, the President continued to blame Republicans regarding ObamaCare, rather than accept personal responsibility for the law’s flaws. He said, “A lot of Republicans seem to believe that if they can gum up the works and make this law fail, they’ll somehow be sticking it to me. But they’d just be sticking it to you.”

(Mis)handling of the economy. In a recent Gallup poll of American adults, just 35 percent give the President thumbs up on his leadership regarding the economy. On Townhall.com, columnist Katie Pavlich writes, “While Obama claims America is ‘back,’ 50 million people are on food stamps and 23 million people are unemployed. After claiming the country was on the right track economically, Obama proceeded to blame Republicans for ‘distractions’ and ‘phony’ scandals coming out of Washington.”

Lack of candor on a range of matters. In an ABC/Washington Post poll (in English and Spanish) of American adults, “. . . a vast 74-20 percent see the IRS’ behavior (targeting conservatives) as inappropriate, with most feeling that way strongly -- and 56 percent see it as a deliberate attempt to harass conservative organizations, not a mere administrative error.” The poll also found that “. . . on the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last fall, suspicions of a coverup rise to a majority, 55 percent. And in this case, only a third of Americans are persuaded that the Obama administration is disclosing honestly what it knows about what occurred.”

Another poll discovery: “Americans by 54-38 percent say they think the government is doing more to threaten the rights of average Americans than to protect those rights. Americans by 69-29 percent in this poll say they’re concerned that in trying to protect classified information the federal government will improperly intrude on the freedom of the press.”

When the President claims that criticisms of him and his policies are partisan and bogus, his attitude can be summed up by another Urban Dictionary definition: of “fuhgeddaboudit.”

1. Forget about it -- the issue is not worth the time, energy, mental effort, or emotional resources.

2. Definitively "no."

3. The subject is unequivocally excellent; further thought and analysis are unnecessary.

Is a president with “Obamanesia” who says “fuhgeddaboudit” serving the best interests of the country? Polls indicate no.

Communications consultant Jon Kraushar is at www.jonkraushar.net. He is a consultant to corporate and political leaders including Steve Forbes.